Bright Youthful Days

Arrangement # 46

What arrangement can I do today in ten minutes and still looks , well..good? It has been raining the whole day yesterday ( 21/7) and this morning it continues to shower heavily since dawn. Therefore I decided to do a very quick presentation. Yellow allamandas ( Allamanda cathartica) are in abundance in my farm. With an umbrella ready I went out in the rain and collected a few bunches of trumpet-like yellow allamanda flowers. Rushed back to my chalet ( I call home) and placed them in a nice little vase, next to a clay statue that I did as an art student forty years ago. There you are ! A ten minutes presentation done and a wonderful reminder of my youthful days some forty years ago.

The Allamanda shrub plant are now grown every where in Malaysia and a favourite for landscaped gardens, parks or homes due to its free flowering nature, rich and glossy green leaves and easy maintenenace. They can be easily propagated by cuttings and thus easily obtainable in large quantities if you decide to plant them in long beds to enjoy its masses of yellow colours later.

Wow, it takes more time for me to draft this blog post than make the above composition. Anyhow, I would like to call the above composition.....Bright Youthful Days.

A Merry Hibiscus Flower Boat

This morning I had an early morning walk with my cats.  We climbed the Vegetation Island No.1 Hill and later they followed me to the east valley area of the farm where I planted beds of hibiscus plants.  The red hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia and Hawaii as well.  Next to the hibiscus collection was this flowering yellow palm tree ( Chrysalidocarpus lutescens), shown below.  From this plant I took a branch of its half-ripe green fruits which seeemed a likely candidate for today's display.

A few meters away from the yellow palm was this beautiful agave plant.  On closer examination, I discovered that the leavs are somewhat cupped and I thought they looked much like a boat.  Immediately the idea of a 'flower boat' composition filled the air. In the wink of an eye,my attention was re-directed to the hibiscus beds and in a blink, the concept that whirled in my mind was...hibiscus flower boat.

When I was thinking what are the other plants that can be loaded into the flower boat, a butterly flew past me and I followed it to its pit stop. Lucky me , the butterfly was sucking honey at a nearby pagoda flower plant ( Clerondendrum paniculatum) . Well, think no more. The huge panicles of small salmon pink flowers of the pagoda flower would resonate well with the red hibiscus flowers.

Thus within minutes ( I think about ten minutes , no more or else the cats will disappear from sight ) the morning's composition was determined.

Firstly, to provide content or load to the flower boat I placed the yellow palm fruits at the base of the agave leaf . The red hibiscus filled up the middle and top end of the leaf.,like so.

Ok, it looks good so far. I have placed the agave leaf on an upturned banana leaf to obtain the  effect of waves in motion.

 

Then I saw on my way back to the chalet a cluster of dwarf yellow allamanda flowers ( Allamanda cathartica).While the red hibiscus petals are single and funnel-shaped, the yellow allamanda flowers have awhorled-leaf arrangement.

Arrangement # 39

Finally, to add merry making and a  mood of festivity to the occassion, I placed the pagoda flowers in between the red hibiscus and yellow allamanda flowers.Satisfied with the composition.. I named it..a Merry Hibiscus Flower boat.